Chuck Versus the Fear of Death is the eighth episode of Chuck's fourth season.
After Frost suppressed the Intersect in Chuck's head with a Portable device, Chuck is assigned to overeager Agent Jim Rye (Rob Riggle) who uses unorthodox methods in hopes of reactivating Chuck's Intersect.
Sarah becomes increasingly distressed when Chuck decides to go on a dangerous mission without the Intersect.
Morgan and Casey scramble as Jeff and Lester attempt to uncover the true identity of Greta #4 (Summer Glau).
This episode provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Casey confronts Greta #4, telling her he doesn't care "what crew you were on," a low-key reference to both Adam Baldwin and Summer Glau's respective roles in Firefly.
- Allergic to Routine: Casey becomes utterly bored with not going for a mission for an entire month, since he's stuck at the Buy More until Chuck gets the Intersect up and running again.
- Auction of Evil: Chuck and Agent Rye are sent on a dangerous mission to Gstaad, Switzerland to acquire an unusual diamond at an auction filled with other spies and criminals. They later find out that the diamonds are fake, and a front for what's really being sold: microchips hidden inside the fake diamonds containing sensitive intelligence.
- Breaking the Fellowship: A real possibility since Chuck no longer has the Intersect. Casey confesses to Alex that he will likely be sent somewhere else if Chuck is unable to reactivate the Intersect, which brings him down since he got attached to the people he works with.
- Brought Down to Normal: Chuck has lost access to his Intersect, and while he's much more capable without it than he was when the show started, he's no longer a badass super spy on Sarah and Casey's level.
- Cable-Car Action Sequence: The end of the episode has Agent Rye and Chuck fighting The Belgian and his men aboard a gondola.
- Death Glare: Greta #4 gives a lot of these, accompanied by her waving around a wickedly sharp knife. She and Casey even trade death glares in a face-off at the end of the episode.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The Belgian is a Belgian man who is in charge of Belgian Organized Crime Organization.
- Defence Mechanism Superpower: Agent Rye believes fear of death is the trigger to reactivate Chuck's Intersect, and spends most of the episode trying to bring out that fear in Chuck.
- Die or Fly: Agent Rye puts Chuck in several actively dangerous situations in order to get Chuck to activate his Intersect. This ends in disaster when Agent Rye underestimates the villain and is gets killed by him while leaving Chuck in a Literal Cliffhanger.
- Disney Villain Death: Poor Agent Rye is shot In the Back and off of the gondola to his death.
- Downer Ending: Agent Rye is killed by The Belgian, who also kidnaps Chuck, planning to extract the Intersect from his brain by any means necessary.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Belgian wears wire-framed glasses and is a very evil gangster.
- Erotic Eating: Greta #4 eating her subway sandwich. Though it doesn't actually show her eating, the scene in question is, ahem, very suggestive.
- Failure Montage: There's a montage at the start of the episode over a period of an entire month where many scientists perform unsuccessful tests in an attempt to re-access the Chuck's Intersect.
- Girl with Psycho Weapon: The new 'Greta' CIA agent played by Summer Glau in "Chuck Versus the Fear of Death". She carries a small serrated knife she refers to as her "favorite friend".
- Headturning Beauty: Greta #4, just just like the previous Greta before her. Lester and Jeff actually start becoming suspicious of how they always have hot new employees named Greta.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Agent Rye ambushes Chuck in his home as part of training to get him to feel fear, and ends up catching Sarah giving Chuck a massage in in their underwear. Sarah isn't pleased.Sarah: What are you doing in our home?
Rye: The Castle's a safety zone. [notes her state of undress] And apparently this place is too. - In the Back: Agent Rye is talking to Chuck who's Hanging by the Fingers in the gondala, trying to encourage Chuck to activate the Intersect when he's suddenly shot in the back by The Belgian and falls to his death.
- Knowledge Broker: The Belgian's primary trade is smuggling and selling sensitive intelligence, hidden in microchips inside fake diamonds. When he finds out Chuck has the Intersect, he becomes obsessed with capturing him, as the Intersect would be a gold mine for him.
- Male Gaze: The camera angles and in-character camera shots of Greta #4 as Jeff and Lester stalked her around the building, including a gratuitous pan up shot of her legs.
- Ms. Fanservice: Greta #4 is played up for this, being a fairly attractive woman with plenty of Male Gaze shots and an Erotic Eating scene and has a Cute and Psycho personality.
- Nice Guy: Despite giving Chuck some Training from Hell, Agent James "Jim" Rye is a very nice and easygoing guy.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: The Belgian. While Belgian crime is a little oddly specific and unusual, he is still a very dangerous gangster.
- Safety in Indifference: Casey starts acting more aloof than usual, when Alex confronts him about it he confesses he's trying to drive people away in case the team is broken up now that Chuck doesn't have the Intersect anymore.Alex: Look, we both know you haven't been on a mission in a while... but I think there's a little more to this than just an itchy trigger finger. What gives?
Alex: I'm preparing myself psychologically... in case I get sent back to Afghanistan or Iraq. I got soft. I made friends here. - Sharp-Dressed Man: The Belgian wears very expensive-looking suits. Chuck and Agent Rye also wear some for the Auction of Evil.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Lampshaded by Lester who gets suspicious about Greta #4 repeatedly disappearing into thin air. She even scares Morgan by doing this at one point. Casey later makes up a story to Lester and Jeff that she was a thief that was using old walkway behind the walls in the HTR for electrical repairs.
- Too Dumb to Live: Jeff and Lester manage to figure out Greta #4, yet repeatedly annoy and confront her about it instead. If not for Casey and Morgan interfering, she would have just killed them for compromising her disguise.
- Villain of the Week: Adelbert de Smet, better known as The Belgian (Richard Chamberlain), is a Knowledge Broker that smuggles sensitive intel to criminal around the globe. When he finds out that Chuck has the Intersect, he tries (and succeeds!) in capturing him.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Sarah is very displeased at the Training from Hell Agent Rye's subjects to Chuck and becomes very agitated when Chuck goes on a mission without an Intersect or her as support.
